The Cast of Characters

Through my blog I use nicknames for most of the people involved to provide them some degree of anonymity. As more people are referred to in my travels, I will add them to this page. When I am using terms like “The Wife” or “The Girlfriend” please consider them a nickname instead of an objectification in any way. To avoid spoilers, the descriptions may increase later on.

Katsuragi – one of the few Japanese people living at Hello House. Nobody really knew how old she was or what her job was, but she was always a lot of fun to be around.

Lux – Female friend and fellow Canadian from Hello House. Found in the dictionary under “doesn’t take crap from people”.

Marshall – A Canadian living in Hello House. Named after Marshall Eriksen from How I Met Your Mother due to his height and plans for law school.

Okonomi – An Australian teacher who I got into a few drunken adventures with. We also watched CSI together

TimTam – Female Australian housemate from Hello House.

Zoe – Female friend from Hello House who unfortunately had the noisiest room in the building – directly above the common room.

Kawasaki / Tokyo

Asako – musician from a Beatles cover band that played at the John Lennon Museum.

Anzac – an Australian teacher at Kawasaki NOVA. He spent some time in the Australian Army. One of my regular post-work beer friends.

Jem – A British teacher and long time karaoke companion. She had one of the best singing voices I have ever heard.

Phoala – a Vietnamese-Australian teacher at Kawasaki NOVA. Never failed to put me in my place in hilarious fashion.

Maria – a teacher at Kawasaki NOVA that was about 10 years older than the other teachers and looking for life experience. Wonderful, outgoing, uninhibited.

Missippi Mark – English teacher that did training at the same time as me.

Yumi – language exchange partner from Kawasaki

Shizuoka

Angie – A coworker at Mishima NOVA originally from Scotland. Her accent came out in a big way after a few drinks.

Azeroth – Roomate from when I lived in Numazu. A good friend who loved beer and World of Warcraft

Christopher Cross – Young British coworker who was unaware that he shared the same name as a famous singer

Happyko – Friends with The Penpal and Klaxman. One of the friendliest people in the whole world.

Kasparov – A coworker at Mishima NOVA. Was a part time programmer and chess expert.

Koalako – an English student who became a good friend and drinking buddy. Is a classically trained singer with an amazing karaoke voice.

Klaxman – Roommate from when I lived in Numazu. English teaching was his second career after being a game programmer for many years.

Palmer – My big, bald Aussie roommate.

Patrick – A supervisor at Mishima NOVA

Super Dave – Australian friend and co-worker who had the same high tolerance for bad movies that I did

The Penpal / The Wife – My language exchange penpal from when I studied Japanese in University. She was my first Japanese friend. Lived in Numazu, Japan and studied English during University. We got engaged in early 2006.

Vivian – A very friendly and outgoing teacher from England who I had the pleasure of working late Saturdays with.

Fraternity Friends and Related People

Code Red – Came to visit in 2004. Is capable of rocking a mean mohawk

Green – If you look up “frat boy” in a dictionary, you would likely find a description of Green

Flounder – Came to visit in 2004. Larger than a sumo wrestler but twice as awesome. Has an encyclopedic knowledge of The Simpsons.

Hippie – Came to visit in 2004. Long time friend and drinking buddy who used to have long, flowing hippie hair. Was in my wedding party.

Junk – My current gym buddy. Was the only non family person to see me off when I moved to Japan. Was the MC at my wedding.

Sunny – Hippie’s wife who met me on one of my returns to Canada. Was in my wedding party.

Triple D – Friend from my fraternity days who was my regular beer and pro wrestling buddy in University. Was in my wedding party.